Stock trading app Robinhood Markets Inc. (Nasdaq: HOOD) is moving into an almost 24,200-square-foot office in Bellevue, according to a report from London-based real estate services company Savills.
The fourth quarter Seattle-area report from Savills noted the new lease is at 500 Bellevue Way NE, in the Lincoln Square South tower. The move comes after Robinhood in 2022 didn't complete a planned move into a mass timber office building in Kirkland, which Electronic Arts took instead. The nearly 53,000-square-foot space would have been over twice the size of the Bellevue office.
Menlo Park, California-based Robinhood didn't provide any additional insight into the new office. The company in February 2021 first announced plans to open an office in the Seattle area, and it reportedly leased the Kirkland mass-timber building later that year before the plan fell through.
Robinhood was founded in 2013 and went public in 2021. The company offers a commission-free investing platform, as well as a debit card, crypto trading and a retirement savings product. In 2022 and 2023, Robinhood went through multiple rounds of layoffs. The company also faced backlash in early 2021 when it halted trading of GameStop, AMC and other volatile stocks after the Reddit board WallStreetBets pushed to make the stocks surge in the face of heavy shorting.
Robinhood lists 17 open roles in the Seattle area on its website in design, engineering and finance. The company has over 130 employees in the Seattle area, according to its LinkedIn page.
The fourth quarter Savills report noted the office availability rate in the Seattle area was 25.9% during the quarter. The availability rate in the Seattle central business district during the fourth quarter was 28.5%, while that in the Bellevue central business district was 23.2%.
"The number of deals has been less affected compared to the size of the space leased," the report read. "There's a growing inclination among tenants towards smaller spaces, particularly in the Eastside, underscoring a strategic shift in leasing preferences."
